Math proficiency

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Math proficiency: a key to success for computer science students

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Communications of the ACM archive
Volume 26 , Issue 5 (May 1983) table of contents

Pages: 377 - 382

Year of Publication: 1983

ISSN:0001-0782

Authors

John Konvalina	Univ. of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha
Stanley A. Wileman	Univ. of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha
Larry J. Stephens	Univ. of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha

Publisher

ACM New York, NY, USA

Bibliometrics

Downloads (6 Weeks): 8, Downloads (12 Months): 46, Citation Count: 19

Additional Information:

abstract references cited by index terms collaborative colleagues

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ABSTRACT

A computer science aptitude predictor was administered to students enrolled in a first technical course in computer science to determine potential for success. The study revealed significant differences in the scoring between students who withdrew from the course and those students who did not. The causes for the differences all related to the students' mathematical background: high school performance, previous computer science education, and the number of college mathematics courses taken.

REFERENCES

Note: OCR errors may be found in this Reference List extracted from the full text article. ACM has opted to expose the complete List rather than only correct and linked references.

	1	Alspaugh, C.A. Identification of some components of computer programming aptitude. J. Res. Math. Ed. 3 (1972), 89-98.
	2	Richard H. Austing , Bruce H. Barnes , Della T. Bonnette , Gerald L. Engel , Gordon Stokes, Curriculum '78: recommendations for the undergraduate program in computer science— a report of the ACM curriculum committee on computer science, Communications of the ACM, v.22 n.3, p.147-166, March 1979 [doi>10.1145/359080.359083]
	3	Ferguson. G.A. Statistical Ana/ysis in Psychology and Education, 5th ed. Mc- Graw-Hill. New York, 1981, 438~39.
	4	Barry L. Kurtz, Investigating the relationship between the development of abstract reasoning and performance in an introductory programming class, ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, v.12 n.1, p.110-117, February 1980
	5	Lawrence J. Mazlack, Identifying potential to acquire programming skill, Communications of the ACM, v.23 n.1, p.14-17, Jan. 1980 [doi>10.1145/358808.358811]
	6	Petersen, C.G., and Howe, T.G. Predicting academic success in introduction to computers. AEDS J. 12, 4 (Summer 1979), 182-191.
	7	Anthony Ralston , Mary Shaw, Curriculum '78—is computer science really that unmathematical?, Communications of the ACM, v.23 n.2, p.67-70, Feb. 1980 [doi>10.1145/358818.358820]
	8	Stephens, L.J., Wileman, S.A., and Konvalina, J. Group differences in computer science aptitude. AEDS J. 14, 2 (Winter 1981), 84-95.
	9	Wileman, S.A., Konvalina, J., and Stephens, L.J. Factors influencing success in beginning computer science courses. J. Ed. Res. 74, 4 (March/April 1981), 223-226.

CITED BY 19

	Henry S. Austin, Predictors of Pascal programming achievement for community college students, ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, v.19 n.1, p.161-164, Feb. 1987
	Jane M. Fritz, Accommodating disparities in secondary school backgrounds in the university environment, ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, v.16 n.1, p.230-235, February 1984
	Harriet G. Taylor , Luegina C. Mounfield, The effect of high school computer science, gender, and work on success in college computer science, ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, v.21 n.1, p.195-198, Feb. 1989
	David Gries , Dorothy Marsh, The 1988–89 Taulbee survey report, Communications of the ACM, v.33 n.9, p.160-169, Sept. 1990
	Henry Stewart Austin, Associations of student characteristics to measures of introductory Pascal computer programming achievement for suburban community college students (abstract only), Proceedings of the 15th annual conference on Computer Science, p.446, February 1987, St. Louis, Missouri, United States
	Peter B. Henderson , Doug Baldwin , Venu Dasigi , Marcel Dupras , Jane Fritz , David Ginat , Don Goelman , John Hamer , Lew Hitchner , Will Lloyd , Bill Marion, Jr. , Charles Riedesel , Henry Walker, Striving for mathematical thinking, Working group reports from ITiCSE on Innovation and technology in computer science education, December 01, 2001, Canterbury, UK
	Peter B. Henderson , Doug Baldwin , Venu Dasigi , Marcel Dupras , Jane Fritz , David Ginat , Don Goelman , John Hamer , Lew Hitchner , Will Lloyd , Bill Marion, Jr. , Charles Riedesel , Henry Walker, Striving for mathematical thinking, ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, v.33 n.4, December 2001
	Andre P. Calitz , Mark B. Watson , Gideon de V de Kock, Identification and selection of successful future IT personnel in a changing technological and business environment, Proceedings of the 1997 ACM SIGCPR conference on Computer personnel research, p.31-35, April 03-05, 1997, San Francisco, California, United States
	J. McGrath Cohoon, Departmental differences can point the way to improving female retention in computer science, ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, v.31 n.1, p.198-202, March 1999
	J. McGrath Cohoon, Departmental differences can point the way to improving female retention in computer science, ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, v.31 n.1, p.198-202, March 1999
	Peter Ramberg, A new look at an old problem: Keys to success for computer science students, ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, v.18 n.3, p.36-39, Sep 1 1986
	Doug Baldwin , Peter B. Henderson, The Importance of Mathematics to the Software Practitioner, IEEE Software, v.19 n.2, p.112-111, March 2002
	Karina V Assiter, Accessibility of Analysis of Algorithms: from programming to problem solving, Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, v.21 n.2, p.185-194, December 2005
	Mohsen Chitsaz , Karen Holbrook, The achievement of blacks in introductory computer science at a predominantly white public university, ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, v.23 n.2, p.2-8, June 1991
	Amy B. Woszczynski , Hisham M. Haddad , Anita F. Zgambo, Towards a model of student success in programming courses, Proceedings of the 43rd annual southeast regional conference, March 18-20, 2005, Kennesaw, Georgia
	Linda McGee , Gerasimoula Polychronopoulos , Carroll Wilson, The influence of BASIC on performance in introductory computer science courses using Pascal, ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, v.19 n.3, p.29-34, September 1, 1987
	Larry S Corman, Cognitive style, personality type, and learning ability as factors in predicting the success of the beginning programming student, ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, v.18 n.4, p.80-89, Dec. 1986
	Laurie Honour Werth, Predicting student performance in a beginning computer science class, ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, v.18 n.1, p.138-143, February 1986
	Kathleen Tsoukalas , Winona Tin Wing Wu, WICS @ SFU: assessing the impact and outcomes of a women in computing science student group at the college level, Proceedings of the 14th Western Canadian Conference on Computing Education, May 01-02, 2009, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada